Migraines and rashes are plaguing my life this week. I developed a rash I feared was German Measles and having sat next to a pregnant teacher last week I was nervous. I cannot remember what the Doctor said but it is not infectious and is related to my issues with immunity. I guess more blood tests will be ordered now.
On Thursday night I developed another migraine and have been living in a bit of a haze ever since. This time I took a tablet as soon as I realised what was happening and I am hoping it will prevent any more. Just feel headachy and out of sorts.
I have started reading a new book on my kindle:
The story of a sojourn living at Shakespeare and Co in Paris, Jeremy Mercer weaves a tale of books, characters and eccentricity in this most famous of bookshops. If only we had such places today, there was one in Christchurch which I visited twice, unfortunately it had to be abandoned, with all its old, rare and valuable books after the earthquakes.
Gail Sheehy has written a new book, Daring, which has just been published in the US. Unfortunately the woman who put the link to it on the WLM page would not believe me when I said it was not available to purchase here in NZ. I think Americans do not realise that Amazon is sectored and some of what they access we cannot, I wonder if they can purchase NZ books? I hope it is available soon, I would love to catch up with her points of view as the years have progressed.
I am still struggling through One Night in Winter. I am unsure of the writer's motivation or reasons for writing this, it is very odd. What nation could realistically lock up a group of school children, including a 6 year old in the most notorious of prisons and get away with it. I doubt the book is going to have a happy ending, it all seems too bizarre.
One of the students I have been tutoring and mentoring for two years is graduating today with his postgraduate diploma. He tells me he will return next year if he is awarded his Masters so I may be going to another of his graduations. The only difficulty is that as a Solomon Islander he is afraid of my guide dog so Jay is going to stay home with my neighbour for the afternoon. I hope he is ok as I have only left him for short spaces of time before.
Reading is still a very difficult occupation for me at present, I am engrossed in Katherine Mansfield's life on my VRS and seem to be getting through 1-2 hours a night of this fascinating story. I wonder if she had received more support from her family if she would have been more successful and lived longer. I am only too well aware of the fate renegades suffer when they choose to ignore family, perhaps a little understanding if she had approached them may have saved her.
I received the latest issue of NZ House and Garden yesterday and promptly devoured the first two stories. Increasingly I am having to use my Humanware MYReader CCTV to read magazines and other publications with tiny print which makes it very time consuming. I wonder if publishers realise when they put print on photos it makes it very difficult to read under any circumstances.
I interviewed a famous cellist and conductor at the weekend, she destroyed 4 days of work by rewriting everything I wrote editing and changing then demanding we put in an advertisement for a concert which will occur after the publication of Dionamic. Now she is demanding to choose the photographs we put in, what a b!
I heard a radio interview yesterday in which they said the issue of ISBN numbers had increased by many hundreds of thousands over the last 10 years. While much of this could be attributed to an increase in self publishing I was surprised to hear this was not so. Only 30% of the numbers issued were for online and self published books which bodes well for the old fashioned publishing business.
No, I have not been away on an unexpected holiday. I am unpacking 60 years of life events and I am beginning to suspect that finally letting go of issues such as adoption, divorce, unhappy marriage, suicide, loss of grandchildren and more means my body is relaxing and hence I am becoming ill all the time. My head cold seems to have turned into bronchitis and back I will have to go to the Doctor. I find it incredibly depressing that ridding myself of anxiety and stress about life events is making me so ill.
Reading has not been a priority, sleep has been my number one destination. I have begun a new talking book;
and while it seems to be the script for the documentary which was shown on TV1 a couple of years ago it is a worthy read. Katherine was both gifted and haunted, never settled, always searching for something she could not define - like many creative people. Well written if lacking in a little depth this book is great company during nights when coughing rules my life.
Having read with fascination for many years of people winning the prize to spend a year in Katherine Mansfield's house in Menton, France, I was very surprised when looking for images to discover what a large town it is. One's perceptions of towns and cities in Europe are often mistaken, many places are much smaller than imagined from here in the Antipodes. I thought Menton was a small French village, I am now quite overwhelmed at its size and obvious look of Rivieria wealth.
The WLM group on Facebook recommends lots of books, many of which I bypass, some of which I ignore. Today the recommendation was for a book called The Secret Piano which I read about 12 months ago. While there is not supposed to be any self promotion I am sure that authors alert other members to specials and arrange for them to put up the posts.
I am off to a Waikato University graduation on Wednesday for Albert. I felt sorry for him with no one to enjoy this special moment of his life with him so offered to go not expecting his wife to fly in from the Solomons. It will be an interesting afternoon.
I now have a really bad head cold and cough, the first since I came to live in Hamilton 10 years ago. I am just living for the day I can feel well again, being sick makes me feel so useless.
I have finished Civilization, Twenty Places on the Edge of the World by Steve Braunias.
Steve visits many of the smaller and out of the way places in New Zealand as well as Apia and Antarctica. He meets the odd and different, people who are the backbone of our rural communities. It was one of those unable to put down talking books, perhaps just as well given that I have lain awake for ages two nights with a runny nose. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories of our rural life and the type of people who make us New Zealanders.
I have just started reading this on my Kindle, the story of a man who cycles around Tuscany for 7 weeks. I have reached the stage where he is picking olives by hand on an organic farm and learning Latin, Italian and a way of life most people can only begin to dream of. I deleted a lot off books of my kindle this morning for fear I would use up too much of the available space. I purchased
written by a writer, gardener and artist. Described as 'ramblings', I am sure it will be very interesting. While going through my kindle app I discovered that I have still not read many of the books I bought at the beginning, even the first book I bought is still sitting there waiting for me to devour it.
Now that my eyes seem to have improved I am hoping I can spend more time reading over the next few weeks as I approach a month of mixed busy and quiet times. I need to relax and de-stress again, perhaps the reason I now have a cold - I have let go!
The battery in my VRS appears to be dying. I have just ordered a new one which they promise will be posted to me today. I charged it up a few days ago and last night it would not turn on, I re-charged it this morning but made the mistake of turning it on while it was charging to see if the battery was the problem, now it will not charge at all! I had not realised how important it was to me until it refused to turn on - it is my link to books recorded especially for the blind and vision impaired and allows me to 'read' in bed at night.
I am still reading Chasing the Rose on my kindle, a slow read due to my wonky eyes. I am enjoying learning about the medieval roses, some of which I used to grow at the farm; their origins, scents, colours and interesting stories. I am hoping to increase my amount of kindle reading but am having to restrict all use of 'screens', whether it be an ipod, kindle, computer or TV.
The tui which has settled in the trees over the fence from my house in the park is a very noisy companion. Delight at having this beautiful native make a home so close to mine is tempered by the fact I cannot see him, although my neighbour reports that he is feeding on the nearest kowhai. It is a delight to hear all the birds singing in the morning and the tui loudly asserting himself as he cares for his nest. I hope this means we will get many more over the next few years.
Yesterday, after a particularly frustrating wait in the rain and cold for a bus, I made the unusual decision to repair to a local café and have hot chips and hot chocolate. Settling down to my odd feast who should walk in but my GP who has been encouraging me to lose weight. She was very magnanimous about by food decisions and rather oddly ordered the same meal for herself!
Hopefully I will have more books to review soon, this enforced break from devouring books is getting quite depressing, yet my house is very clean!
I have spent an inordinate amount of time on Facebook this morning trying to understand why a woman I helped in dealing with the sudden death of her son several weeks ago has turned on me. I am not sure if it is her grief or whether she is not genuine. Thankfully I have had the support of two other members, both moderators, who have helped me sort out the situation.
I have not done any reading this week given I am still having issues with my eyes, other than my talking book, Suite Francaise. As I am so woozy much of the time I am finding that I just drift off to sleep and am losing all track of the book. I have decided that as it is such a good sleeping draught I will finish the book and perhaps return to it another day.
I have had several new magazines arrive but I cannot spend any time exploring them and the delights in their pages. I cannot write for any length of time and cannot even begin to consider my art journaling. What was supposed to be a relaxing holiday full of fun, relaxation and enjoyment has turned into one of headaches, misery and the inability to achieve anything either serious or fun.
I am writing a story, albeit it in 5 minute slots, for work about Kylie Bax, the international model. She has led such an interesting life and having returned to her home here in New Zealand to have her husband walk out is very sad. One may assume that it is due to the isolation that NZ brings to careers and the inability to get anywhere quickly. Does not say much for love if that is the only reason her husband has left.
I so want to read travel books again, to dream of travelling and to get my life back on track. Until I can solve my migraine issues, eye issues and anxiety problems it looks as though I will be stuck here in NZ for the foreseeable future.
Places to dream of and plan to visit. I may even be shouted a trip to the Solomon Islands, now that would be an interesting place to work.
